West Indies U19 have avenged the loss of 1983 World Cup final as they outclassed the upbeat India U19 by five wickets to lift the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, Dhaka on Sunday.
West Indies have won the ICC U19 World Cup for the first time in the history of the tournament. India were left stunned after what it can be termed as one of the best games of cricket one has witnessed in the recent times. A World Cup Final in its truest sense.
West Indies won the toss and chose to bowl first on a green wicket and to no one's surprise they knocked out the Indian top order in matter of very little time. The three-time World Champions were reeling at 27/3 and they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals.
Sarfaraz Khan was the only Indian batsman to show some resistance with a gritty half-century. A cricket is a team game and a side cannot always depend on one man but Khan's innings at the end went in vain too.
India were bundled for 145 in the 46th over and West Indies had to chase down that target but it was never easy.
Indian bowlers kept on threatening the Caribbean batsmen right from the word go. They also managed to pick up a couple of wickets and that exerted extra amount of pressure on the West Indian batsmen.
Kacey Carty and Keemo Paul were the star of the show for West Indies U19. An invaluable partnership between Carty and Paul took the game away from India. Carty was adjudged the man of the match for his superb half century. A patient knock yielded the best possible result.
India U19 will be kicking themeselves as they put down so many chances during that West Indies U19 run chase. Rishabh Pant missed a couple of catches behind the stumps that could have turned the game in India's favour. Avesh Khan missed a catch towards the end that also could have made an impact on this game.
Catches win matches and India will regret as they dropped way too many and let go off their chance of lifting the ICC U19 World Cup for a record-breaking fourth time.
